Enhancing Doctoral Dissertations with Data Visualization – Guidelines and Framework Development

Aim/Purpose To develop a framework aimed at effectively including data visualization in writing doctoral dissertation documents. Typical doctoral dissertation documents are divided into chapters and sections. Suggestions for the sections that are deemed more helpful to include visualized data are provided in this paper. The suggestions are going to be provided in a framework presentation. Background Presenting information visually in research writing has advantages if they are done correctly. If done incorrectly, including data visualization in research documents may be detrimental to what is written. In doctoral dissertations, this takes special importance as the students strive for correctness in all sections of their dissertation including when comprising visual elements. Methodology The paper reviews the literature on the issue of data visualization and includes them in different sections of the doctoral dissertation. It provides suggestions for the inclusion of data visualization elements in sections of the doctoral dissertation document. The suggestions are based on a developed framework named Data Visualization Framework (or DVL-FW). Contribution The contribution of this paper is that it provides guidelines that can be used as a reference for doctoral students on how to strengthen the dissertation sections by including data visualization that is more effective in delivering the intended messages. The data visualization can contribute to enhancing the writing of the section in particular and to writing and completing the dissertation document in general. Findings This paper is intended to be used by mentors or advisors of doctoral dissertations when they guide their students in writing a dissertation document. Students can include effective visual components into their dissertation document provided they are done correctly. Visualizing data (or including data visualization) in a doctoral dissertation can be effective and it can contribute to the clarity of the dissertation document. Recommendations for Practitioners Practicing the inclusion of data visualization adds value to the dissertation document and will contribute to making the document more convincing. Mentors or advisors can use information from this paper to provide suggestions for effectively adding visual elements to dissertation documents and can pass the information to their students. Recommendations for Researchers The psychology of visual elements and their addition to research can be discussed in follow-up research studies to strengthen the findings of this paper here. Impact on Society The findings of this research aim to help doctoral mentors/advisors when they supervise their students in writing doctoral dissertation documents. It can also be used by doctoral students when they write their dissertation documents.